How will technology influence the way that we make and interact with art? In a world of social media, who constitutes as an artist? What are the limits of contemporary art?
As part of their ground-breaking Andy Warhol/Ai Weiwei exhibition, the NGV has invited contemporary thinkers to speculate on how rapidly changing technology is influencing creativity and arts practices. This one-day forum will be hosted by Buzzfeed editor Simon Crerar, and will feature esteemed speakers including artnet News national art critic Ben Davis talking about the dangers of digital art and Max Delany, curator of Andy Warhol/Ai Weiwei and newly appointed artistic director for ACCA, exploring the way that Warhol pioneered the inclusion of technology in art.
Ahead of the forum, we asked some of the speakers to respond to the question, 'What might art of the future look like'?
Kathy Cleland, director of digital cultures program at the University of Sydney: "The art of the future will blend the physical with the virtual to create mixed-reality art forms”
Fee Plumley, artist and 'technoevangelist': "We won’t have a name for ‘art’ in the future because we will have recognised that art is everything, everywhere"
Simon Crerar, editor of Buzzfeed Australia: "In the networked, social future, everyone will be an artist, every action a readymade, every space an exhibit."
Tom Uglow, creative director of Google Creative Lab: "The art of the future is just like the art of today, only a little more responsive to the world around it"
Ben Davis, keynote speaker at Art and the Connected Future and national art critic of New York-based artnet News: "Art will split in two: one mainstream of contemporary art will become more spectacular, immersive, theme-park-like, networked and technological, until it merges with engineering, with almost no need of a named artist. The other stream will insist more and more on fetishized experiences of slower time, perception, and person-to-person contact, recovering art’s perceived weakness ('art is boring') as strength, and merging with the very-contemporary culture of mindfulness."
